Captain Cameron Munster has revealed the Maroons took inspiration from the 1995 ‘Neville Nobodies’ Queensland team as they levelled the series with a 26-24 win over NSW in game two, with the 2025 Maroons even having ‘1995’ on their jersey sleeves.
In 1995, under the guidance of rookie coach Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin, the Maroons, labelled ‘the Neville Nobodies’, whitewashed the Blues against all odds, winning the series 3-0.
The Super League war at the time meant a host of star players weren’t eligible to play Origin, and the Maroons were left decimated.
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To illustrate the dominance of the Blues in that era, the 1995 Origin series was the only one won by Queensland between 1992 and 1997.
In 1995, the Maroons won game one in Sydney with a 2-0 score line, in a hard fought grind where the only points were a penalty goal kicked by Wayne Bartrim.
Coincidentally, that was the same margin the Maroons won by at Optus Stadium in Perth on Wednesday night.
Munster hasn’t forgotten about the 1995 Maroons team, even though 30 years have now passed since their triumph.
“But we had that mentality, like the ‘95 Nobodies team and just kept working and turning up for each other and we ended up getting the chocolates,” Munster told Channel 9.
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There are similarities between the 1995 Maroons and the 2025 Maroons, in that Munster’s men were given little chance of winning game two, with the Blues heavy favourites after a comfortable victory in game one in Brisbane.
Munster, who was captaining the Maroons for the first time after Daly Cherry-Evans was axed after game one, made another reference to the 1995 side in the press conference after the game.
“We keep talking about it,” Munster said.
“They won by two points in (game one) in the series, and we won by two tonight. It was that ‘95 mentality in defence.”
Maroons hooker Harry Grant also gave credit to the ‘95 Queensland team.
“We’ve made reference to 1995 Queensland Maroons and the grit they showed in defence and to be honest that was going through my head,” Grant said.
“It was probably going through everyone else’s heads.”
